1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control unit for a fuel-cell power generation apparatus which generates electric power and supplies it to electric equipment, and using simultaneously generated heat, supplies hot water to hot-water supply equipment. For the same purpose, it also relates to a control method, a control program, and a computer-readable record medium in which a control program is recorded.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, a fuel-cell power generation apparatus has been known which, using a fuel gas, generates electricity in a fuel battery and supplies electric power and hot water. In order to enhance energy efficiency by making good use of electric power and hot water supplied by such a fuel-cell power generation apparatus, it is desirable that the power generated by a fuel battery be equivalent to the power used by electric equipment. Desirably, the concurrently generated hot water should also be equal to the quantity of hot water used by hot-water supply equipment. Therefore, in a conventional fuel-cell power generation apparatus, a method is proposed of measuring and managing the power consumption or hot-water consumption of each home and controlling the power generated by a fuel battery.
For example, Patent Document 1 proposes the method of measuring hot water (i.e., a supplied hot-water heat quantity) used by hot-water supply equipment in each house, predicting a supplied hot-water heat consumption, and controlling the power to be generated so that the supplied hot-water heat quantity becomes equal to the supplied hot-water heat consumption. Besides, in Patent Document 2, the power consumption is predicted beforehand by executing a simulation, and according to this prediction value, the output generated by a fuel battery is efficiently controlled.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-318006 specification    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-61245 specification